May 5th

6C and rain.
Will be bowling in the rain today.
Last of 'Forestry'.

  The enforcement of these contracts was delegated to the Forest Rangers and their Assistants. For the most part the enforcement role was taken quite seriously although there were some exceptions.  Although many of the contracts were similar, each Sale area would have special conditions that were specific to that particular Timber Sale. The average scenario when Ranger staff arrived at an active logging operation would be somewhat as follows.

  The actual contract would be reviewed on arrival, a field map for that particular inspection would be studied and notes made of all special clauses, these would be entered on the map’s margin.  The inspecting officer would then attempt to locate on onsite company representative to first let it be known that a routine inspection was about to start and secondly to give opportunity to accompany the forest officer.  All main roads would be traversed or a traverse would be extended from where the logging had ended at the time of the last inspection. All landings, bridges and culverts would be noted. Then the boundary of the sale area would be followed to ensure that there had been no trespass across the boundary, this was followed by a zig zag examination of all new logging and a check to see if any previous infractions had been corrected. The new logging was and any infractions were recorded on the map.  On completion of the inspection, the company representative was apprised of any infractions and what the follow up action would be. (In most cases a period of two to four weeks was usually granted to correct any problems where appropriate). If previous infractions beyond the grace period had not been rectified or if there had been a repeat of an earlier infraction an immediate suspension of operations would be ordered in writing.

  Depending on the speed of each individual logging operation, inspections were made every two to four weeks. All instructions were followed up by a formal letter which was delivered by registered mail.  These inspections and actions were routine and for the most part carried out diligently by Ministry staff.  Even those operations where the licensee had for his own reasons not carried out any logging activity were checked regularly to ensure that operations had not started without our knowledge.

  This inspection procedure is an important component of why Forestry in this province has had a down hill slide.

  Also in the 1950’s through to the reorganization of the Forest Service in 1978/79 there were about anywhere from 120 to 150 Ranger Districts administering the contracts that they had been charged with. These districts were key to all things forestry in the territory they served.

Reforestation

  Reforestation by way of tree planting has been ongoing since the 1930’s on coastal BC. Climatic conditions have always favored the probability of successful plantations along the coast and these successes are evidenced by those earlier plantations now being ready for harvest.

  Tree planting was not introduced into interior BC until the 1960’s. The harsher climate and temperature extremes made successful plantations a challenge. Slow growth due to short growing seasons, competition with grass and brush and setbacks resulting from rodents and other animals has hindered the establishment and success of many of the plantations. However perseverance, new techniques, superior stock have prevailed and eventually a second harvest will be ready. Unfortunately plantations were generally single specie plantings until perhaps the last twenty years.  Consequently a risk exists to specie oriented disease and insect attack. Also in the beginning the trees were planted on a predetermined spacing in rows as straight as the terrain would allow. This was usually eight by eight foot spacing but sometimes six by six.

Bare root stock was the only thing available until the late ‘60’s, then mudpacks came along and eventually container stock. This was an important evolvement as bare root by necessity is larger (usually was two years old with one transplant we called it 2+1) and required a great deal of care to protect the roots. Container stock or plugs were much smaller, one year old, and quite protected in their container.

Where as in the beginning four hundred trees planted per day per planter was acceptable, twelve to fifteen hundred a day is now the norm.

There was a time when follow up on the reforested sites would see natural regen destroyed in fear of the natural tree dominating the planted one. This has all changed with accepting natural trees and planting to “plantable” spots rather than the spacing method.

Today companies are not relieved of their stewardship of an area that they logged and reforested until it is deemed “free to grow”.

Fire Suppression

The science of fighting fires has in a sense not changed over the years, but with the advent of better and better communications, quick access (horses to trucks to airplanes to helicopters) then the development of sophisticated aerial attack capability coupled with training of specialized crews has enormously benefited the ability to detect, find and attack fires quickly and efficiently.

However because of the warping of the Forest Service’s role and the dissolution of an all purpose forestry program, some things have unfortunately been lost. Number one is because of centralization, in depth knowledge of geographic areas and the people of those areas has withered. By changing the forest officers role in supervising the everyday harvesting and developing a structure that depends on its ability to control fires before they become conflagrations (a worthy objective) the knowledge of how to supervise and work with heavy machinery has been seriously stressed.

Forest Management

In earlier paragraphs, I described the past role Forest Officers, today the day to day supervision of depletion of the forest inventory has been turned over to the logging companies. In the case of Tree Farm Licenses, Forestry Officials were instructed that they could not visit logging operations except for a once yearly “audit”. The audit sites were chosen by the company and the Forest Officer was escorted to the chosen sites.

In the case of other types of tenure there is still some freedom for ministry staff to carry out spot checks and levy fines for infractions. However the routine inspection has disappeared along with progressive mapping. In some districts the forest officer routinely uses licensee provided information to up date his records.

As centralization of Forestry offices has been furthered the ability to be current on logging activities as declined.

Ironically, even at this time after staffing cuts, there are upwards of three times the number of staff producing a quarter of the work that was done prior to 1979. This can mainly be attributed to specialization of roles. Unfortunately it has become a source of levity for some to note that on any given day up to three government vehicles can arrive on the same log landing, usually with two people in the cab each to carry out a special function. Sadly there was a time when one vehicle would have arrived with one Forest Officer who would have carried out all three jobs as a routine part of his normal work day.